View full sizeIn a match where the Portland Timbers featured several of their younger players, it was a longtime veteran that stole the show. Veteran defender Futty Danso, a member of the Timbers since their USL days, converted a penalty kick in the 40th minute to give the Timbers a 1 to 0 victory over Monarcas Morelia in the first ever Copa Verde competition.Doug Beghtel/The Oregonian

Timbers
Coach Caleb Porter had been preaching many tenets over the season to bring his
entire team together into a symbiotic philosophy. While I've seen evidence of that in observing
the First Team, last night featured the first time that belief has extended
down to the Timbers' academy. With
several players getting the night off for the Columbus match this weekend combined with
injuries and international duty, Porter called up several members of the
Timbers U-23 and Academy team to fill the game day roster. Goalkeeper David Meves, Defender Anthony
Hobbs, Midfielders Reid Baez, Jesse Garcia, Foster Langsdorf and Forward Anthony
Machionne joined Timbers first team players Diego Chara, Diego Valeri and
Andrew Jean-Baptiste on the bench.

For the
starting group, it was a mix of regulars sprinkled in with key reserves
designed to give players meaningful minutes on the pitch while keeping the
group fresh. Milos Kocic would get the
start in goal, while on the defensive line, it would be Ryan Miller on the
left, Sal Zizzo on the right and Futty Danso and Rauwshan McKenzie in central
defense. In the midfield, Porter started
Ben Zemanski in a holding midfield role with Steven Evans and Michael Nanchoff
in support. Up top, Porter would employ
his three young strikers – Kalif Alhassan, Jose Valencia, and Sebastian Rincon.

View full sizeYoung forwards Jose Valencia and Sebastian Rincon started for the Timbers against Monarcas Morelia. While Valencia showed tremendous displays of speed all night, he ran afoul of the offside flag four times officially, while Rincon dazzled the crowd with several displays of ball control that involved stepping over the ball and passing well in traffic.Jennifer Kesgard, community blogger

First Half Thoughts: The first
few minutes watched both sides try to find their touch, but Morelia had the early advantage in terms of
possession and passing. The offensive
duo of Mancilla and Montero were pressing often, while the Timbers backline
appeared to struggle with the pace being thrown at them. Zizzo, McKenzie and Miller all had bad
turnovers in the Timbers end that allowed Morelia
to counter quickly, but Danso had several good tackles that kept the threats at
bay. Being the most veteran presence on
the pitch, Danso had been given the captain's armband for the night, and he
stepped up impressively with some good marking.
On the other side, Valencia
was giving the Monarcas defense fits with his speed along the wings, but he was
also running afoul of the offside flag as he was whistled for three violations
in the first 15 minutes of the match.

After Nanchoff received a caution for
a hard foul early on, the match eventually settled down into a fairly wide open
affair on both sides. The Timbers
generated consecutive free kicks in the 37th and 38th minutes
taken by Nanchoff that nearly found traffic in the box, but the rebounds
eventually carried out to Evans who missed wide left and high respectively. The intensity of the game picked even more
when Nanchoff was brought down by an extremely hard tackle from Morelia defender Carlos
Morales. Portland was starting to find space and
frustrate Morelia
a bit, and they finally broke through in the 40th minute off a Zizzo
crossing pass.

The effort found Valencia in the box, and he attempted to bicycle
kick the ball on goal, but the shot struck Morelia defender Enrique Perez in the hand. Center official Ramon Hernandez pointed to
the spot for a penalty, and the Timbers celebrated the call. While both
Nanchoff and Valencia
appeared to lobby to take the kick, the veteran defender Danso took the shot
and buried the effort into the upper right corner of the goal as Pilar guessed
the wrong direction.

The match's intensity picked up even
more just before the half when Montero was sent forward on a long ball with
Danso marking. As the players battled shoulder to shoulder, Montero eventually
fell down in the box in a heap.
Hernandez felt Montero exaggerated the call and cautioned the forward,
but while showing the card, Ramirez grabbed at the center official's arm to
stop the call then argued with him briefly.
Hernandez flashed the red card, and then cautioned Pilar moments later
as several Morelia
players surrounded Hernandez to argue the sequence. Instead of potentially earning a penalty
kick, Morelia
watched one player get ejected while two others received yellow cards.

View full sizeSal Zizzo, shown here against San Jose, showed some versatility against Morelia. Zizzo started at right back on the defensive line for the first half, then moved to right midfield wing for the second half. While Zizzo did have a couple of misplays, he also showed tremendous work in the first half keeping Morelia forward Jefferson Montero under wraps at points.Rick Curwen, community blogger

Second Half Thoughts: After the crazy finish to the first half, Porter switched up the Timbers
with bringing on Langsdorf and Hobbs
for Zemanski and Alhassan, and that move triggered several adjustments. Hobbs
moved to left back with Miller going to right back which pushed Zizzo to the
right midfield wing while Langsdorf moved into the middle. With Zemanski out, Evans became the focal
point of the midfield and he started barking out information and directing
traffic. The change did generate a
couple of early shots by Rincon and Danso, both saved by Pilar. While Valencia
was continuing to frustrate Morelia
with his speed, Rincon was starting to create room because of his ability to
step over the ball and pass it quickly.

Morelia started to open up their bench, and when
Trellez came on, he became the focal point of the attack. He generated three shots, including a
sequence between the 73rd and 77th minutes where he
forced Kocic into a save in traffic while his second shot was pushed just wide left. Montero certainly created tons of chances,
but Trellez generated more dangerous opportunities which should bode well for
them and their offense.

Garcia and Machionne joined the match later, and they combined
on the Timbers best chance of the half in the 77th minute when
Machionne put a crossing pass into the box to an open Garcia. The youngster quickly turned and shot, but
his effort was deflected awat only by a superlative defensive play by the Morelia defense. While both teams continued to pressure the
goal, neither side could generate any other goals besides Danso's first half
effort.

For Porter, the match followed the game plan he put into place –
get some younger players valuable experience in a competitive environment,
manage the minutes of those First Team members who have been regularly
appearing in MLS and U.S. Open Cup matches, while giving the fans a competitive
and entertaining effort. As Porter put
it in comments, "The way we looked at it, it's a great opportunity to get
experience for some of our guys that haven't played. Obviously, we had eight guys that had played
major minutes for us, so it's wasn't like we played a completely inexperience
team. Our goals were to get to the match
healthy, get several players experience and give the paying fans a great
viewing experience and a good show."

Morelia Coach Carlos Bustos was extremely complimentary of Portland and the crowd,
especially the raucous Monarcas supporters who were incredibly passionate and
fevered in their support for the entire match.
Their efforts drowned out the respective anthems at the beginning of the
match, and they kept going throughout the entire match. There was even a big grouping of Morelia fans celebrating
their team 30 minutes after the end of the match, but several of the fans were
frustrated about the red card. Bustos
indicated in his post match comments that Hernandez's call left e bad taste in
his mouth, and changed the complexion of the entire match.

Portland now returns to MLS league play with
a match in Columbus, Ohio when they meet the Crew on July 7 at 2
PM local time. While the win against Morelia extends the Timbers' unbeaten streak to 19 matches
while Portland
still holds a 15 match unbeaten mark and 10 match unbeaten sequence on the
road, Porter wants his team to remain hungry and focused on the task at
hand. In comments made after practice on
July 4 at their Beaverton
practice facility, Porter said, "We're building a real culture here. I've
always felt that with every team that I've worked with that once you get internal
leadership happening, you know you're getting your culture right. When it's not always me that has to hold guys
accountable and the players do it themselves, take ownership and give the same
messages that I've been provided, that's when you know you really are starting
to build a strong culture. We're at that point, and it's really exciting." I know the Timbers would love nothing more to
have this trend continue as they resume the second half of their season.